| Summary : The Medical Centre was built on the site of part of Ridgefoot Mill (HOB UID 943981), a cotton weaving mill owned by Abraham Ormerod. Ormerod died in 1888 and stipulated in his will that a medical clinic should be built as a gift to the town. The site of the mill was cleared in 1936 and the new Centre completed in 1938. It was designed by local architect J. Edward Stott and opened by H.R.H. the Princess Royal, Mary Countess of Harewood. The foundation tender document includes a description of the accommodation, to include a central Waiting Hall, Ante-Natal Department, Sunlight Rooms, School Clinic, Child Welfare Services, Nurses Room, Isolation Room and Pram Shelters, and various waiting rooms and offices. All the accommodation appears to have been directed towards maternity and child welfare. The centre was taken into the NHS in 1947 and became a Medical Practitioner Health Centre in 1972 and was where Dr Harold Shipman practised as a GP. In 1986 it became a day centre for the elderly and disabled until 2001, since when it has been sold and was unused at the time of the visit in 2010. The Centre is constructed of finely tooled ashlar sandstone with hipped green Westmorland slate roofs and red brick internal walls. The main building is two storeys with short forward projecting wings to either side of the main range and a central rear projection, and a single storey rear range running the length of the building and extending to each side. There is a paved area to the front and it is set well back from the road. The windows are all metal framed Crittal style with margin lights and projecting cills, though currently boarded over. It is said to be constructed on a raft foundation. The building was assessed for listing in 2010 but failed to meet the require criteria. |
More information : The Medical Centre was built on the site of part of Ridgefoot Mill (HOB UID 943981), a cotton weaving mill owned by Abraham Ormerod. Ormerod died in 1888 and stipulated in his will that a medical clinic should be built as a gift to the town. The site of the mill was cleared in 1936 and the new Centre completed in 1938. It was designed by local architect J. Edward Stott and opened by H.R.H. the Princess Royal, Mary Countess of Harewood. The foundation tender document includes a description of the accommodation, to include a central Waiting Hall, Ante-Natal Department, Sunlight Rooms, School Clinic, Child Welfare Services, Nurses Room, Isolation Room and Pram Shelters, and various waiting rooms and offices. All the accommodation appears to have been directed towards maternity and child welfare. The centre was taken into the NHS in 1947 and became a Medical Practitioner Health Centre in 1972 and was where Dr Harold Shipman practised as a GP. In 1986 it became a day centre for the elderly and disabled until 2001, since when it has been sold and was unused at the time of the visit in 2010. The Centre is constructed of finely tooled ashlar sandstone with hipped green Westmorland slate roofs and red brick internal walls. The main building is two storeys with short forward projecting wings to either side of the main range and a central rear projection, and a single storey rear range running the length of the building and extending to each side. There is a paved area to the front and it is set well back from the road. The windows are all metal framed Crittal style with margin lights and projecting cills, though currently boarded over. It is said to be constructed on a raft foundation.
The front elevation has a central recessed entrance between added single storey sections to each side, each with two boarded windows: these cover the original windows behind. Above is a window to each side of a central section breaking forward with a single window and panel below inscribed with the name of the centre and coats of arms. A narrow canopy at first floor level has replaced the original porch arrangement. The projecting wings each have two windows on each floor. There is a band and low parapet at eaves level, and the roof above rises to a centrally placed ventilation spirelet with a pyramidal roof. The side elevations are similar, with the parapet continuing and four windows to each floor (with one omitted on the ground floor of the left return). Behind the two storey building is a short linking section with one window. Entrances to the rear wing are to each side with large keystones and minimal moulding on the jambs. Outside these are the former pram shelters, originally open to the front and rear but now infilled with matching stone and with boarded windows. The single storey rear wing has alternating single and double windows from the right up to a central inserted entrance. To the left are three more windows then three narrow windows before the infilled rear of the pram shelter.
The interior opens into a panelled lobby with a corridor leading off to each side and doors into a double height Waiting Hall which occupies the centre of the building. An inserted partition wall divides this into two unequal parts. A mural painted in wooden panels occupies the front wall, with scenes of local life including a fun fair in the shadow of the railway viaduct. The style and clothing indicates that it is original. From this room open a number of original timber doors with glazed panels and screens, and ventilation grilles above lead to the central spirelet. To the rear is a corridor from which smaller rooms are accessed, some of which are original while others have been subdivided from larger rooms. The corridor wraps round to the left where more small rooms have been created, and meets up with the front corridor. In this corner is an original staircase with original terrazzo floor and iron balustrade in Art Deco style, leading up to the first floor. The rear corridor to the right leads to an inserted staircase, and to the rooms on the right of the Waiting Hall, which are less subdivided. The first floor consists of a gallery above the front of the Waiting Hall which has a balustrade pierced at intervals with iron work in a simple Art Deco style. There are rooms to either side, some with original plain veneer doors with painted signs reading "enquiries" and "private". The roof and ceilings have been breached in a number of places with consequent loss of fabric and deterioration of the condition of the interior.
The building was assessed for listing in 2010, but failed to meet the criteria for addition to the list for the following reasons:
Architecture: the architectural style of the Medical Centre is very conservative for its period, and does not reflect the modern thinking that inspired other listed Medical Centres of the period.
Internal Layout: alterations to the layout are extensive. The main Waiting Hall has been divided, and a number of rooms either subdivided or opened out, with the result that original circulation patterns are not readable and the original functions of the rooms cannot be determined, while a rear entrance and a second staircase have been inserted.
Original Features: the survival of original features is extremely patchy with widespread loss of doors and extreme deterioration of most of the internal fabric including the loss of one of the mural panels. (1) |